Front Row

BBC

Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.

  • 42 minutes 29 seconds
    Review: Wuthering Heights film and Jack Thorne's Lord of the Flies

    Anne Brontë biographer Samantha Ellis and writer Stephanie Merritt join Tom to discuss Emerald Fennell's racy adaptation of Wuthering Heights starring Margot Robbie.

    They also review Adolescence co-writer Jack Thorne's BBC adaptation of William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

    After a 35 year campaign, the South Bank Centre has secured Grade II listing. Former Artistic Director Jude Kelly and architecture historian Barnabas Calder talk about whether we're learning to love Brutalism.

    Finally, Samantha, Stephanie and Tom have read James Meek's book Your Life Without Me, which is concerned with the competing claims of the old and the new, in both architecture and life.

    Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

    12 February 2026, 8:34 pm
  • 42 minutes 15 seconds
    Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee on her new series

    LIsa McGee on her fresh spin on the murder mystery genre How To Get to Heaven from Belfast, and on the impact of the Derry Girls phenomenon.

    At this month's Grammy Awards, Olivia Dean, Lola Young and FKA Twigs - all alumni of The Brit School in Croydon - walked off with prizes. We speak to the school's Principal, Stuart Worden, about how the school prepares students for a career in the music industry.

    And as the world premiere of The Great Wave, a new opera inspired by Hokusai's iconic print, takes place, composer Dai Fujikura talks to us about the man behind the art, and writer Fi Leith discusses the cultural love affair between Scotland and Japan.

    Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

    11 February 2026, 8:08 pm
  • 42 minutes 28 seconds
    Yes Minister creator Jonathan Lynn on revisiting the characters in his new play

    The creator of Yes Minister - Jonathan Lynn - on his new play I’m Sorry Prime Minister. Griff Rhys Jones plays Jim Hacker, the octogenarian former Prime Minister. Clive Francis plays civil servant Sir Humphrey in this elegiac comedy which draws the saga to a close.

    Inside Aardman is a new exhibition opening at the Young V&A this week to mark the 50th anniversary of the creative company who have brought plasticine stop-motion animation to a global stage in the form of Wallace and Gromit. Tom is joined by stop-motion animator and director Joseph Wallace and Jez Stewart, curator of animation for the BFI National Archive to discuss the exhibition and the state of stop-motion animation today.

    And director Amy Berg talks about her archive rich documentary It's Never Over about the late singer Jeff Buckley.

    Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

    10 February 2026, 8:28 pm
  • 42 minutes 10 seconds
    Kristen Stewart on her directorial debut, The Chronology of Water

    Hollywood star Kristen Stewart talks about her directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, which is a searing portrait of childhood abuse and redemption that’s based on the life story of author Lidia Yuknavitch.

    Seurat and the Sea is a new exhibition opening at London’s Courtauld Gallery. It features 26 paintings and sketches - many of which haven’t been seen together since they were created - that show the pointillist painter’s love for depicting the coast of northern France.

    Bad Bunny has made headlines in the last week for his outspoken political comments following his victory at the Grammys, as well as his historical performance at last weekend’s Super Bowl. Radio 1xtra’ s Fee Mak explains what it is about Bad Bunny’s music that makes him Spotify’s most streamed artist in the world.

    Here There are Blueberries is a play inspired by the discovery of an album of snaps of workers relaxing and enjoying time off. But these are the staff of Auschwitz. Writer and director Moises Kaufman explains why and how he and co-writer Amanda Gronich created their extraordinary and timely drama.

    Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian May

    9 February 2026, 8:24 pm
  • 42 minutes 36 seconds
    Review: Mark Haddon's memoir - Leaving Home, Twinless film, Mackenzie Crook's Small Prophets

    Tom is joined by reviewers Tristram Fane Saunders and Natalie Jamieson to discuss... Mark (The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time) Haddon's autobiography Leaving Home. The dark comedy film Twinless about two men who lost their respective twin brothers and develop a growing friendship after meeting in a support group. And Mackenzie Crook's new TV series Small Prophets, which stars Michael Palin. Also Saturday Night Live has announced its UK line-up, and the return of The Muppets.

    Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe

    5 February 2026, 8:39 pm
  • 42 minutes 21 seconds
    Musician Martin Carthy on retiring from performing live

    Folk musician Martin Carthy speaks about his long career and about his recent decision to retire from live performance following a diagnosis of late-onset Alzheimer's Disease;

    As a major retrospective of the work of Gwen John goes on display at National Museum Cardiff, the exhibition's curator Lucy Wood and historian of visual culture Becca Voelcker discuss this formidable and fascinating modernist.

    77-year-old curator Alison Luchs of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC has gone viral with her social media videos in which she speaks to Gen Z in their own language. She speaks to Front Row about slaying as an online phenomenon.

    And ENO's new Music Director Designate, German conductor André de Ridder, speaks to us about his plans for the opera company and about the forthcoming production of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht, a piece which he has described as "frighteningly relevant".

    Presenter: Kate Molleson Producer: Mark Crossan

    4 February 2026, 8:15 pm
  • 42 minutes 25 seconds
    Jared Bush, head of Walt Disney Animation Studios, on his record-breaking film Zootropolis 2

    Jared Bush, head of Walt Disney Animation Studios, on his record-breaking film Zootropolis 2.

    Alex Tadros, owner of Mars Tapes, the last cassette shop in the UK, and culture writer Sian Pattenden on the resurgence of the cassette tape.

    Oliver Royds, co-founder and joint CEO of Troubadour Theatres, on his company's plans to create London's biggest theatre venue in Greenwich.

    Debris Stevenson on her new play My Brother's a Genius, and how rap battles helped her to co-create the RSC's new production of Cyrano de Bergerac which will be heading to London's West End.

    Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu

    3 February 2026, 8:55 pm
  • 42 minutes 10 seconds
    The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - on stage

    Author Rachel Rachel Joyce and musician Passenger discuss the new musical based on Rachel's hit book The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

    Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation has been republished after 25 years as a Penguin Classic. Samira Ahmed talks to the author about the impact of the book.

    Emily Itami and comedian Iszi Lawrence review the British Museum's new exhibition "Samurai".

    Critic Tim Robey on the work of Catherine O'Hara, following news of her death.

    2 February 2026, 8:21 pm
  • 42 minutes 33 seconds
    Reviewing Is This Thing On? Guess How Much I Love You? and George Saunders

    Tom Sutcliffe and guests Viv Groskop and Dorian Lynskey, review Bradley Cooper's film Is This Thing On? - about a marriage in crisis and a comedian on the rise. Guess How Much I Love You? is the new play by Luke Norris at London's Royal Court Theatre, which deals with starting a family, enduring love and impossible choices And George Saunders' new book, Vigil, set in the living world and the world of the dead and the in-between. Also how successful is British soft power in China?

    Presenter Tom Sutcliffe

    29 January 2026, 8:30 pm
  • 42 minutes 25 seconds
    John Carter Cash on his musical production The Ballad of Johnny & June

    John Carter Cash on how the lives of his famous parents - Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash - have inspired a stage musical which tells the story of the couple's long love story but also tackles addiction head on.

    As a long-lost portrait of poet Robert Burns by the acclaimed artist Henry Raeburn goes on display, art historian Bendor Grosvenor and art journalist Melanie Gerlis discuss how experts go about attributing a painting to a great artist. While technology can show us detail far beyond the paint on the canvas, will human expertise and discernment always be necessary in cases such as this?

    And author Benjamin Wood talks about his atmospheric novel Seascraper, which centres the story of a young shrimper in a coastal town in the north of England who dreams of becoming a folk singer, and which has won the Nero prize for fiction.

    Presenter: Kate Molleson Producer: Mark Crossan

    28 January 2026, 8:12 pm
  • 42 minutes 16 seconds
    Michael Sheen, Laurel & Hardy, writer Patrick Charnley

    Michael Sheen on the first production of his newly-formed Welsh National Theatre, Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play Our Town seen through a Welsh lens.

    Film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reacts to the Bafta nominations announced today and how they compare with last week's Oscar's list.

    100 years since Laurel and Hardy united for their first film, Neil Brand discusses the comedy duo with film historian Pamela Hutchinson.

    And writer Patrick Charnley discusses his Cornwall-set novel This My Second Life, which came out of his experience being clinically dead for forty minutes, and his subsequent recovery from a life changing brain injury.

    Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Lucy Collingwood

    27 January 2026, 8:27 pm
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